Oh, why bother being so sneaky? It won't work.

> At the risk of being hounded for the rest of my life, I'm going to tell
> you how to handle this. I agree with the majority of folks that while they
> have not agreed to a newsletter, your customers would not be terribly
> surprised to receive an email from you. Many online sellers do it.

True.

> But, as mentioned, be prepared to be branded a spammer by some. And all it
> takes in some cases is a single complaint to get your account closed.

True.

> So, what is the solution? You are operating in good faith. You are
> definitely not a spammer in the true sense, you are only contacting people
> who have bought from you in the past.

Being a spammer (sending UCE) is like being pregnant. Hard to be just a "little" bit of a spammer. The on-line archives are essentially forever.

True, the hard-core professionals have their own data base entries, and attention from law enforcement. But being branded a spammer can make it hard to find hosting at some companies. It's like being booted from an apartment for too many loud parties. You might NEED a good reference to find new hosting in a reputable apartment.

> First, if you are only going to do a few at a time, you might just sign up
> with a "throw away" ISP, that you are going to use for this
> initial contact and then move on. There are hundreds of "under $
> 10" ISP's who you can use. Go to www.thelist.com and you'll find
> plenty of them. Just do a few at a time through their mail servers.

Now you get in trouble, ethically. If the spam mentions a web site hosted anywhere, no matter who sends the email or through what path, the web site is at risk. Ten years ago, hosts might say "We can't sanction our customer because the spam didn't come through OUR servers."

That was roundly mocked by the network administration community, and called spam havening. If those ISPs didn't offer the spamvertised sites safe haven, they would have no incentive to spam.

So providers like that got to see the inside of a lot of blacklists, and the pressure is still being applied to some offshore rogue providers. But take a look at a typical Acceptable Use Policy of today:

"(d) Unsolicited Advertising. You agree not to post or transmit any unsolicited advertising, promotional materials, or other forms of solicitation to other subscribers, individuals, or entities, except in those areas (e.g., classified advertisement areas) that are designated for such a purpose. You further agree not to involve or associate RCN in any way with the posting or transmission of unsolicited advertising, promotional materials, or other forms of solicitation, including but not limited to unsolicited advertisements sent from another service provider advertising an RCN-hosted web page, and unsolicited advertisements sent from another service provider which request that replies be sent to an RCN email address."

Your advice could cost somebody their web hosting or domain registration. I don't need to flame you for that, just point out that sneakiness is of no benefit.

> Here, again, you could go to a new host and server, just for this purpose.
> That way, should the SPAMMER complaints result in losing your service, you
> have not lost your entire company's server, just the one with the
> autoresponder.

Um, no. If I got such a spam, I'd report it to the sending ISP, and to the web host and the domain registrar and the shopping cart vendor. Anything the spammer makes money from is fair game. We're not naive, you know.

> Intentions do count. I'd say you have a defensible position if someone
> does file a real complaint. Of course, the title and opening sentence will
> will be of upmost importance to get the correct message across right away.

Agreed. Intentions count AFTER the web host gets a spam complaint. They will run an investigation, and they might take intentions into account. Of course, the recipient's ISP might still add the sender to their own filter blacklist, but on their servers, their rules apply.